1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a carriage ejection mechanism and a carriage retaining mechanism. More particularly, the present invention relates to a carriage ejection mechanism and a carriage retaining mechanism provided on disc changers of CD players and DVD players.
2) Description of Related Art
There are CD and/or DVD players in which plural discs are stocked within the players, and a single disc is selected and played from among the plural discs. Such type of players is equipped with disc changers that can simultaneously stock a plurality of discs. The disc changers have a plurality of carriages on which to place the discs, and when playing a disc, the carriage with the desired disc is carried from a stock position to a disc playing position where a reproducing device of the player is located. And when changing a disc, the applicable carriage is ejected forward of the player, i.e., moved from the stock position to an eject position.
The carriages are contained inside a drawer, which moves back and forth between the stock position and the eject position, in a slidable manner in the direction the drawer moves. The drawer holds a vertical stack of a plurality of carriages. When changing discs in stock, the entire drawer along with the carriages is moved to the eject position to expose the discs on various carriages.
In one type, only the carriage with the disc to be replaced is ejected with the drawer and the discs are replaced one at a time. In another type, the carriage with the disc to be replaced as well as all carriages below it are ejected together, which allows the desired disc to be replaced in this state and the discs on the carriages below to be replaced by manually sliding back the original carriage and/or any other carriages above the carriage with another disc to be replaced.
However, in the type of disc changers where the discs are replaced one at a time, all discs have to be ejected in sequence one by one to check the discs in stock, thus making this a time-consuming and onerous process.
Also, in the type of disc changers in which the carriage having the desired disc as well as all carriages below are pulled out together in a stack, although a plurality of discs pulled out can be checked individually since the plurality of carriages are ejected together, the upper carriages have to be manually slid back in order to check the discs on carriages stacked below. Furthermore, if the desired disc is not the disc on the top carriage, since not all discs are ejected, the top disc must be selected again and the eject operation repeated in order to check all discs. As a result, this also is a time-consuming and onerous operation and as difficult to use as the type of disc changers described first.
The present invention relates to a carriage ejection mechanism and a carriage retaining mechanism that would allow all discs to be checked all at once.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a carriage ejection mechanism comprises a drawer that moves back and forth between a stock position and an eject position, and a plurality of carriages contained in the drawer and on which discs are placed, wherein the carriages are ejected successively staggered in a stair-like manner with an eject operation of the drawer. As a result, discs on all carriages can be checked all at once.
For example, a carriage ejection mechanism can be structured to comprise a drawer, which moves back and forth between a stock position and an eject position, a plurality of carriages contained inside the drawer in a slidable manner in the direction the drawer moves and in a vertically stacked manner, and a slide control device that slides the carriages towards the stock position relative to the drawer when the drawer moves towards the eject position, wherein the slide control device slides the upper carriages relatively more towards the stock position than the lower carriages and where the amount of slide of the top most carriage allows at least a part of the disc mounted thereon to be exposed from the main body.
In the carriage ejection mechanism having such a structure, when the drawer is moved towards the eject position, the slide control device moves the carriages more towards the stock position relative to the drawer the higher the carriage is. In other words, when the carriages are pulled out along with the drawer, the more the slide control device reduces the amount the carriages are pulled out, the higher the carriage is located. Consequently, all carriages from the top most to the bottom most are pulled out in a slightly staggered manner.
In a carriage ejection mechanism according to the present invention, by having at least one of the carriages eject in such a way that its disc can be viewed in its entirety, at least one disc can be replaced when all carriages are ejected staggered in a stair-like manner.
Further, a carriage ejection mechanism according to the present invention comprises a drawer, which moves back and forth between a stock position and two eject positions, and a plurality of carriages on which discs are placed and which are contained inside the drawer, wherein the carriages eject successively staggered in a stair-like manner with an eject operation of the drawer to a first eject position, and where a designated carriage and all carriages below are ejected in a stacked manner with an eject operation of the drawer to the second eject position.
Consequently, there are two modes of eject operation. In the eject mode to the first eject position, the discs on all carriages can be checked all at once. And in the eject mode to the second eject position, the carriages are pulled out so that the designated discs is on top, which allows the designated disc to be replaced without any further operations.
A carriage ejection mechanism, for example, can be structured to have an individual ejection device that would keep in the stock position all carriages above a designated carriage when the drawer moves to the eject position.
In the carriage ejection mechanism having such a structure, the individual ejection device allows the designated carriage and all carriages below to be pulled out when the drawer projects out to the eject position. As a result, the designated carriage and all carriages below are pulled out in a stack.
In a carriage ejection mechanism according to the present invention, a plurality of carriages may be contained in a manually slidable manner when the drawer is ejected.
In this case, the carriages inside the drawer can be slid back when the drawer is ejected. By sliding a carriage back, the carriage below it is exposed and its disc can be replaced.
Furthermore, in a disc player comprising a plurality of carriages on which discs are placed and a drawer that contains the plurality of carriages in a slidable manner and that also moves the plurality of carriages outside the device to eject the discs, a carriage retaining mechanism according to the present invention retains the carriages so that whether all discs are in place can be checked viewed from above when the discs are ejected and when the carriages within the drawer are stacked in a staggered manner towards the back of the drawer in sequence from the bottom tier.
Consequently, with an eject operation of the drawer the carriages are ejected successively staggered in a stair-like manner.
A carriage retaining mechanism according to the present invention can be structured so that the top most disc can be replaced in the ejected state, while the discs in lower tiers can be replaced by moving the upper carriages back.
In this case, the top most disc is completely exposed so that its entirety can be viewed, while discs in lower tiers are ejected so that they are stacked staggered in a stair-like manner in positions forward of the fully ejected position. The top most disc is exposed in its entirety and therefore can be replaced without moving the carriage it is on. And discs on tiers other than the top most tier can be replaced after sliding backward the carriage(s) above the desired carriage and exposing the desired disc.
Further a carriage retaining mechanism according to the present invention can be structured so that the disc on the bottom tier can be replaced in the ejected state without any further operations, while discs in upper tiers can be replaced after moving the carriages.
Consequently, the disc on the bottom most tier is completely exposed so that its entirety can be viewed, while discs in upper tiers are ejected so that they are stacked staggered in a stair-like manner in positions relatively rear of the fully ejected position. The bottom disc is exposed in its entirety and therefore can be replaced without moving the carriages it is on. And discs on tiers other than the bottom tier can be replaced after sliding the desired carriage with the desired disc and the carriage(s) above it to expose the desired disc.
Moreover, a carriage retaining mechanism according to the present invention can be structured so that a plurality of carriages are retained in positions nearly uniformly staggered when ejected, which allows the discs on the carriages to be viewed in a nearly uniform manner from above.
As a result, all discs are ejected generally uniformly staggered in a stair-like manner. To replace discs, the desired carriage with the desired disc and the carriage(s) above it are slid until the carriage with the desired disc is fully ejected to expose the disc.
Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings that illustrate, by way of example, various features of embodiments of the invention.